Trying The Knorr Rice Mate Rice Conditioner

According to tv commercial, the Knorr Rice Mate gonna make rice softer, whiter, more fragrant and more delectable. It has Vitamin A and iodine as bonus. One 5g pack cost 4.50 pesos and good for half kilogram rice. I took a good look at ingredient listing. Tried explaining each and what it can do to make rice better.

Jasmine Rice. The expensive rice known for its nutty aroma and subtle flavor. I never know if it is the most expensive and delectable.

Sugar. Ants love sugar, bees love sugar and perhaps human loves sugar the most. His love for sugar and creativeness lead to invention of countless food products and dishes. They even learned to add sugar to cooked rice. I experienced eating sugar flavored rice during my childhood days.

Maltodextrin. Serve as bulking agent, humectants, sweetener, flavor carrier and has the ability to protect flavors. Bulking agent – for the same amount of rice, adding maltodextrin is going to yield more volume. Humectant – it prevents the loss of water to keep rice softer for longer period. Old rice / bahaw na kanin is often dry, tough and hard to eat. Flavor carrier and protector – A delectable rice is expected to last- it protects flavor.

Artificial pandan flavor. It is a good rice natural additive. Ohhhh! I am referring to real pandan leaves.

Palm oil. I cannot understand why they did include palm oil. Maybe to make the rice oilier.

Natural flavor. I read it several times. It is really a natural flavor. Identifying the specifics is like shooting an apple in middle of darkness. Gonna ask the help of William Tell.

Nutrient premix (Vitamin A acetate, potassium iodide and maltodextrin). I think adding nutrients to every food item is a good marketing strategy. People will be inclined to buy cause it is nutritious.

No msg added. Hmm… No comment!

I tried the Knorr Rice Mate. I followed the directions stated on back label. Wash 1/2 kilogram rice (2 to 4 cups) and add appropriate amount of water. Add one pack of Knnor Rice Mate. Mix gently. Cook and the result is a whiter and world class quality rice.

Observations: The rice was fragrant and more delectable to my senses. Other expected effects like more volume and softer texture were not noticeable. These two properties are also dependent on amount of water added – more water = bulkier and softer to some extent.

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My mom got many of these as a prize. I tried one last night and today. It really makes rice whiter and better. Smells pandan too. I like the result, except for the sweetener, so I’m making a research. How could you say that it’s not good for human consumption?

We have a pandan plant in our garden, and I think adding a pandan leaf to your rice is STILL way way better and cheaper compared to using this product.

Diana, I also think Knorr Rice Mate is really bad. And I’m from the Philippines. And we only eat brown or red rice and I try to have an organic lifestyle (and yes, agave is also my sweetener) but I think this comment was uncalled for: Is this the Philippines’ plan for population control?

It’s a product and if you check the ingredients of the TV dinners in the US, they contain soidum benzoate and other deadly stuff. Does that mean that killing the people is the US’s plan for population control also?

What a wonderful idea, you give poor people white rice which causes diabetes in the amounts they eat it in the Philippines, then you add a sweetner called Maldextrose to make the diabetes come one even sooner, then you add insult to injury by adding Palm Oil which raises the bad cholesterol. Why don’t you just shoot the people and take them out of their misery even faster? I have watched this recent surge of promoting this garbage on Eat Bulaga. Are you giving them inferior Bigas (uncooked rice) and hoping your chemical agents will make it even more appetizing. Is this the Philippines’ plan for population control? Might as well throw in the MSG and make the job that much faster. Shame on you. I do not buy Knorr products here in the USA becasue we care about our health, we are vegetarians and only eat brown or red rice. We use lemon instead of salt and agave if we need a sweetner at all. Do these poor people a favor and make a vitamin additive without all the chemical crap. Give them good rice and they won’t need an additive to make their rice flufflier. The only thing we use in the US to make anything fluffier is fabric softener in our laundry, and even that is bad for you. So please do the people of the Philippines a favor and don’t pass out little envelopes of death. Now I have to inspect all the Filipino restaurants we eat in to make sure they are not adding Knorr Rice Mate to our rice. Just one more thing I have to inspect.